Flooding kills 200 in Pakistan

The United Nations World Food Programme is trying to distribute emergency rations to families left homeless.

Carl de Souza: AFP

The death toll from widespread flooding in Pakistan has risen to more than 200, with 5 million people affected after heavy rain and swollen rivers destroyed more than 1 million homes.

The United Nations World Food Program is trying to distribute emergency rations to families left homeless as more rain is forecast in the next three days.

Pakistan has now seen vast swathes of farmland inundated for a second year in the southern province of Sindh.

One official said the situation there was even worse than last year.

"So far, 209 people have been killed and 5.3 million affected," Zafar Qadir, head of the country's disaster management authority, told reporters.

"Around 1.7 million acres of agricultural land has also been affected by the rains and floods."

The UN food agency says it has started to provide emergency supplies to the first of half a million people, following a weekend appeal from Pakistan, which already relies on billions of dollars of international aid.

World Food Program spokesman Amjad Jamal said the agency had provided food packages to more than 600 families in Badin, one of the worst affected districts of Sindh.

"This is the first UN food response after Pakistan's government's appeal. We will expand this program to half a million people in coming days," he said.

The disaster management authority said it was working to quantify "huge" losses with cash crops such as sugar cane, banana and cotton now under water.

The government was last year pilloried by flood victims who accused civilian authorities of a delayed and inadequate response to the disaster.

A special parliamentary committee, formed by prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to coordinate relief efforts this time round, said it was facing huge problems.

"We have provided 80,000 family food packages and 45,000 tents. We have procured 10,000 more tents but there are serious distribution problems," Qamar Zaman Kaira, a member of the committee, said.

"The helicopters are unable to fly in the continuous rains and roads have been flooded. The crisis is worse than last year in Sindh province. There are huge losses."

Mr Gilani has said recent rains in Sindh had inundated 4.1 million acres, including 1.7 million acres of crops.

He said 700,000 houses had been damaged, 150,000 people in relief camps needed immediate assistance and that 64,000 livestock had been lost.